CHICAGO (May 23, 2019) — In its 34th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, today announced Gage Singer of Aurora High School as its 2018-19 Gatorade Missouri Baseball Player of the Year. Singer is the first Gatorade Missouri Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from Aurora High School.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Singer as Missouri’s best high school baseball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year award to be announced in May, Singer joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo High School, Mich.), Jon Lester (2001- 02, Bellarmine Preparatory School, Wash.), David Price (2003-04, Blackman High School, Tenn.), Clayton Kershaw (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas), Rick Porcello (2006-2007, Seaton Hall Preparatory School, N.J.) and Kris Bryant (2009-10, Bonanza High School, Nev.).
The 6-foot-2, 205-pound senior right-handed pitcher and shortstop led the Hound Dogs (21-5) to the Class 4 district finals this past season, compiling a 6-0 record, a 0.00 ERA and 82 strikeouts with just four walks in 35 innings pitched. A three-time First Team All-State selection, Singer also batted .388 with six home runs, 21 RBI and a .567 on-base percentage.
A member of the National Honor Society and the Future Teachers of America, Singer has volunteered locally on behalf of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. “I have seen many of the state’s top athletes, including some potential draft selections and Gage Singer ranks up there with anyone,” said Danny Powers, head coach at Neosho High. “He is the most complete high school player I have seen this year. He is an excellent defender, hits for power, has speed, and is a lockdown arm when he is on the mound.”
Singer has maintained a B average in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at Crowder College beginning this fall.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. From the 12 national winners, one male and one female athlete are each named Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. In all, 607 athletes are honored each year.
Singer joins recent Gatorade Missouri Baseball Players of the Year Luke Mann (2017-18, St. John Vianney High School), Grant Wood (2016-17, Jefferson City High School), Jake Matheny (2015-16, Westminster Christian Academy), Jeremy Eierman (2014-15, Warsaw High School), and Alex Lange (2013-14, Lee’s Summit West High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.
As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Singer also has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of his choosing. He is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
